Function
The protein has a physiological function in regulation of water transport mainly in apocrine glands in the axilla, vulva, eyelid, and ear canal serous cells of the submandibular salivary gland, serous cells of the submucosal glands of the bronchi, and accessory lacrimal glands as well as cutaneous eccrine glands. It is also found in amniotic fluid and seminal fluid.
PIP has the ability to bind immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgG-Fc, CD4-T cell receptor suggesting a wide range of immunological functions. PIP also binds to AZGP1. PIP exerts aspartyl proteinase activity able to cleave fibronectin.
PIP can bind different species of bacteria showing highest affinity to sterptococci thus playing a role in non-immune defense of the body aginst pathogenic bacterial strains.
Mitogenic effect of PIP was observed on both normal and malignant breast epithelial cells.
Read more about this topic: Prolactin-induced Protein
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue.”
—Leonardo Da Vinci (1425–1519)
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—Adam Phillips, British child psychoanalyst. “Worrying and Its Discontents,” in On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored, p. 58, Harvard University Press (1993)
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